I’ll not tread lightly

remember school days and how we would play
like there was no tomorrow?
now the castles we made
are the price we must pay
or flounder in oceans of sorrow

roaming wild and free, building houses in trees
as worlds waltzed to discordant tunes
like a zephyr through grass,
gilded summer days passed;
left us flayed under Cheshire moons

wooden sword fights and valiant knights;
pirates, the Pan and his Bell,
faded from dreams,
rowed ungentle streams,
to where the real monsters dwell

I’ve climbed faraway trees, seen fair Honah-Lee,
never never thought I’d grow old
now the pied piper calls —
before the last curtain falls,
leafless, I’ll trip into the wold.

Ryan Stone

First published by Wolf Publishing June, 2015

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Moving Day

in her garden
she gathers keepsakes–
the dance of dry leaves
the blue jay–lashes out
at last season’s flower
as she slow walks to the van
in her drive

– Ryan Stone

Unrequited

She dreams
of many things,
it seems –

of gold,
of love, to grow
not old –

the sea,
the moon; but not
of me.

Ryan Stone

Season 5-7-5

The Watch Seller

The promise of morning and flea market bustle,
rouses tired hands to lay out old friends.

Faces he knows as well as his own
watch with timeless abandon.

He sets each precisely with intimate touch,
soft as forgotten caresses;

gathers their stories, pulling each close
in the bittersweet truth of parting.

Come afternoon, those hands will slow;
kissed cold by the late Autumn air

and a passing whisper in his ear –
somewhere a bell is tolling.

– Ryan Stone

Click here for audio

Father Time 5-7-5